


you have heart, and love enough for two

by marvelleous



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Strike Team Delta AU, There's a little fluff, This is mostly angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 13:05:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11647155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelleous/pseuds/marvelleous
Summary: "Agent Coulson was sent to kill me. He made a different call."





	you have heart, and love enough for two

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted as part of a series for Philinda Week in 2015. Edited version.

SHIELD still knows next to nothing about her, a mysterious foreign killer who keeps getting to their targets and knocking them off before they even have a chance to arrive on scene. They’ve encountered her time and time again, but she’s managed to escape their clutches with ease, disappearing into crowds or vanishing into the night. She’s become a real thorn in their side.

And so they send one of their best in to eliminate her.

Phil’s been tailing her for weeks now, the infamous assassin nicknamed “The Cavalry”. He’s followed her into high class hotels and dark alleyways, through city after city, but not once getting close enough to catch a glimpse of her.

She's good.

But no one is untouchable, not when the right person is sent to hunt them down. 

 

* * *

 

There’s a man in pursuit of her. It’s nothing new; she’s been stalked and hunted for as long as she can remember, but this one’s different. He’s not like the others, aggressive and making their presence known in their rush to catch up to her.

He’s patient.

If it were not for her skill and training, she might not have even realised he was following her.

She’s used being shot at, but no one has ever been fast enough.

But constantly being on the run, the blood on her hands; it’s a life she’s growing tired of.

And so she finds a spot to hide in, waiting for him to catch up to her. This man has played the game well, and should she die, only this man is worthy of putting a bullet through her head.

She wants to see his face before he does.

 

* * *

 

He finally catches sight of her at the lobby of the hotel he’s “staying” at. She’s nothing and everything he imagined.

He’s casually sipping a mug of coffee and pretending to read the morning paper, eyes darting around the room to surveil the area. The place is full of businessmen and women, not unexpected for a hotel in the CBD, but one woman in particular draws his attention.

She’s dressed to blend in with everyone else, but so incredibly young. He knows just from a single glance that she’s deadly, in every way imaginable. She turns and gives him a smile, before heading over to the elevators.

What scares him most as he rises and prepares to chase after her, is that the smile seemed to be genuine.

 

* * *

 

She’s waiting for him in his hotel room, sitting calmly in one of the over-sized armchairs. He locks the door behind him with one hand, the other hovering over where his gun is concealed, but she doesn’t move an inch. They're both waiting for the other to make a move, to play their cards, rooted to where they are now. 

Everything is still until it isn’t.

Glass shatters and furniture is knocked over and they’re both bleeding, bruised and battered, but it’s not the fight he anticipated.

She’s holding back and he can’t figure out why.

He has the upper hand once more and pins her to the ground, pressing the gun to her temple and letting his finger rest on the trigger. She peers up at him, brown eyes meeting blue, and he doesn’t see a master assassin, wanted in a dozen countries for murder, but a girl with a tortured life, ready to give up and stop running.

He can’t kill her.

 

* * *

 

“I’m Agent Phillip Coulson, from SHIELD,” he says as he bandages up a rather nasty cut on her arm.

“You were supposed to kill me,” she responds, looking down at her hands. “Why didn’t you?”

He secures the bandage before moving on to another part of her arm which had shards of glass imbedded in the flesh.

“I made another call.”

 

* * *

 

He gets into a lot of trouble for disobeying orders, but the director a big man with an eyepatch, doesn’t seem too angry. She’s shipped off to be thoroughly assessed, and the process takes months and months. They want to know if she’s mentally stable, and see how she fights, and by the end of it all, she wonders why she agreed to come back here.

He’s waiting for her the day she’s sent back to Headquarters, with a badge and a new uniform.

“Agent Melinda May of SHIELD. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” he asks, grinning at her and she admires the silver eagle against black leather, trailing her fingertips over her photo.

“Yes.”

 

* * *

 

Phil talks. A lot. Their conversations consist of mainly him speaking, and her listening, but they work best like that.

They’re partners now.

She likes working with him; he’s quick and efficient, and they’re good together, even if he chatters about useless things a majority of the time. She learns that he loves Captain America and collectibles and old things. He tells her stories about missions he’s been on and places he’d like to visit. He takes her to libraries and restaurants and record shops, to show her all the things he enjoys.

In return, she confesses to him of the crimes she has committed, of all the wrong she has done, the red in her ledger. She tells him about the little girl, Belyakov’s daughter, that she killed, and they grow closer.

 

* * *

 

Relationships between Shield agents are not forbidden, but definitely discouraged. Phil knows from experience that dating your co-workers is just asking for trouble.

But Melinda burns like a fire within, and he’s like a moth drawn to the flame.

Four years into their partnership and he realises he’s in love with her. He may well have been, the first time he laid eyes on her, but he’s finally willing to admit it to himself. He’s nowhere near prepared to admit it to her.

“Love is for children,” she tells him, but it seems to him that she’s starting to believe it less and less each time she says it.

 

* * *

 

They fuck for the first time after a botched mission in Europe.

She leaves him naked and sweating in the bed, disappearing into the bathroom to clean up, and he wonders if they’ve taken another step towards a relationship.

It happens again and again, more and more frequently.

She’ll drag him down on the mats after a sparring session or into the shower stalls after a day in the gym. She’s always the one to initiate , and always the one to flee after it’s over. He falls harder for her as time goes on, but she appears to use him for nothing more than a bit of stress relief or to burn off extra energy.

It grows more difficult to watch each time as she leaves him, but he accepts that this is as close as she’ll probably ever allow him.

 

* * *

 

Melinda leaves to work undercover for Tony Stark for six months, and Phil knows from experience how annoying and egotistical that man can be. But the guy is dying so he cuts him some slack.

Fury calls him in to help Melinda supervise Stark on his project to synthesize a new element for the core of his arc reactor.

She pulls him away to an empty part of the house and kisses him, fingers working at buttons of his shirt, but he pushes her away.

She looks confused, and hurt, but it’s better this way. Their dalliances are interfering with their partnership, and he can’t pine after her forever.

He straightens up his clothing and leaves her standing there alone.

“I missed you, Phil,” she whispers into the empty room.

 

* * *

 

He’s reassigned to New Mexico and that’s it for a year and a half. She takes missions across the globe and they don’t make contact the entire time.

There’s a hammer and a Norse god named Thor, and that’s just the beginning. His psychopath of a younger brother opens up a portal and appears in the middle of their base and he kills several of their agents before approaching Phil with his sceptre at the ready.

“You have heart,” he says, and Phil’s never felt more fear in his entire life than in this moment.

 

* * *

 

She’s in the middle of a counter-interrogation when she receives a call from SHIELD.

“Coulson’s been compromised,” a voice that she recognises as Maria’s says, and her heart sinks to her stomach.

She puts on a brave face but her mind is a jumble as she makes her way back to the helicarrier to join the rest of her team.

 

* * *

 

Steve Rogers or Captain America, is there, and all Melinda can think about when she meets him is how excited Phil would have been to be here, to have the opportunity to meet his childhood hero in person.

There’s a whole lot of fighting, and people are killed. Stark and the Captain manage to catch Loki, and accidentally attract Thor to them along the way.

And then their helicarrier is under attack and so many agents are shot point blank. Melinda knows Phil is there, brainwashed by Loki, and when they call for someone to deal with him, she answers that call.

Their fight is short but damaging enough. She knocks him on the head and then he’s come back to her. She comforts him as best as she knows how and he understands what she’s trying to confess to him when she tells him that “I’ve been compromised.”

Before they can say anymore, they’re off again, because there are aliens in New York and they’re not dreamy like Thor. They’re robotic, “the Chitauri”, and they’re destroying the city even as SHIELD and The Avengers race around trying to save it.

Things aren’t looking good and the World Council decides to pull the plug and nuke the city, but Stark, despite all his misgivings, saves the day, before insisting they go and try some shawarma.

 

* * *

 

They finally sit down and have a proper conversation about them, and whatever it is that is between them. He tells her that he loves her, heart pounding wildly in his chest as he does.

She doesn’t say it back, but she places one hand on his cheek, and kisses him softly, and he knows that she feels the same for him, and that’s more than enough.

Their partnership stays the same; they’re still SHIELD’s best, and occasionally work with the Avengers, which Phil is thrilled about because Steve is just as great as he dreamed. He’s a bit of a fanboy, but the great Captain America doesn’t judge him for it and all is well.

 

* * *

 

Things don’t change until they do, and then it’s a mess of doctor’s appointments and paperwork, and less than a year later he’s sitting beside a hospital bed, watching Melinda gently rock their newborn daughter to sleep.

“This wasn’t supposed to be able to happen,” she tells him again, and he’s heard her say it a thousand times in the past nine months.

It scared him in the beginning, but after they’d talked it out and decided to embrace the situation as a happy accident, the words brought him joy, because they’d created a miracle together.

 

* * *

  

She goes back into the field and he stays home to look after the kid. They make do with calls at odd hours and video chats when they can and their little girl learns her mother’s face mostly through a computer screen.

He feeds her and bathes her and changes her diapers as Melinda goes off on missions with her new partner, Captain freaking America.

SHIELD falls and Hydra takes over and he’s filled with worry as he watches the news and sees what is happening out there in the world. Melinda doesn’t make contact and he fears the worst, until he sees her making her small screen debut on every news channel.

“Look, Mommy’s on TV,” he tells their baby, who coos and reaches out to the screen.

 

* * *

 

“I kissed Steve,” is the first thing she tells him when she gets back, and they share a laugh when he jokes that he’s not sure whether he’s jealous of Cap or of her.

 

* * *

  
  
Their lives are dangerous but someone has to defend the world, and now they have more to fight for than ever.


End file.
